It has been said that cocoa content has one purpose and one purpose only: to advertise how much of a chocolate bar’s weight is comprised of cacao solids. Sounds simple, right? Well, not really. Cocoa content is a secretive number, actually, one that carries with it several implications about the cacao beans that comprise the chocolate. The key to unlocking these secrets can be found in your mouth. By tasting the chocolate, you not only tease apart its manifold nuances but also uncover a wealth of information that a mere number can suggest.

As mentioned, cocoa content only tells you how much of the bar’s weight is comprised of cocoa solids. Now, it’s important to understand that “cocoa solids” refers to the chocolate’s combined weight of cocoa butter and dry cocoa particles (i.e. cocoa powder). To put this to the test, let’s say you pick up a bar of Lindt Excellence 70% and read on the ingredients list that for every 42g of chocolate there are 17g of fat. Next, divide 17 by 40 and multiply the quotient by 100, and you’ll get 40, or 40g of fat in a 100g bar, or 40% fat. Subtract that number from 70, and the difference will tell you what percentage of the bar consists of dry cocoa solids, which in this case is 30%. Pretty cool, huh?

This may be nice and all, but how can the cocoa content serve as an indicator of quality? Well, first of all, it can serve that function but not always. The key to using cocoa content to your advantage is by first figuring out how much of the bar’s weight is comprised of dry cocoa particles. Usually, 30% is a good starting point. From there, taste the chocolate and notice the intensity of the flavor and also the texture.

Lack of intensity can imply that either a particular cacao is inherently not as strong as another variety or that a lot of cocoa butter has been added. Pralus’ Ghana 75% chocolate is a good example of a bar whose intensity should be higher but is not due to excess cocoa butter. In bars that have a lot of cocoa butter, the texture tends to be highly smooth and creamy. Too much cocoa butter can actually hide the flavor of the cocoa particles, and the experience may be akin to hearing a scream through a pillow.

If this happens, the chocolate maker may be hiding poor beans through a barrier of cocoa butter, hoping that you would never notice. Hachez uses this technique. The underlying flavor is highly bitter and offensive, but the massive amount of cocoa butter smothers it almost completely. When applying the same formula above to a Hachez Cocoa d’Arriba 77% bar, one arrives at 53% cocoa butter and only 24% dry cocoa particles. Now, compare that to a Lindt Excellence 70% bar.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, a bar at a measly 50% or so will not usually satisfy anything beyond a sweet tooth. Some critics will tout, "Let the beans speak for themselves," but I would like to hear the beans talk when the chocolate is of 50%. With so much sugar in the recipe, only sweet nothings will whisper through my ears. It appears that bean quality is so bad, or at least so ordinary, that the cacao’s purpose is better suited for a bar whose excessive sugar content will mask the minute and/or harsh flavor the beans were poised to contribute. I like to call this practice “maximizing resources,” or “cutting corners.”

You also may have heard some people claim that the higher the percentage, the better the bar. This, folks, is simply false. An 85% chocolate made from bad beans can be 100% bad. You see, in ideal circumstances, the best of beans would be used for the strongest of bars, but reality just doesn’t work like that. Sometimes, makers get the crazy idea of using overly assertive and bitter beans for an 80%-class bar only to create some pretty awful chocolate. Valrhona did this once, but I think recently they cleaned up their act. Venchi also provides a glaring example.

So, what percentage does one rely on? That magical 70% has popped up numerous times, I’m sure, but should you choose that number as a baseline? I say, definitely not. Some beans are apparently better suited to a lower percentage, say 65%, and won’t perform as optimally at even a 5% increase. I suppose there’s a reason why Michel Cluizel’s masterful Los Ancones is 67% or Valrhona’s Caraibe is 66%.

With all that said, cocoa content can be an indicator of quality. You just have to read between the lines and figure out if in fact this is the case once you’re done tasting the chocolate. Of course, everything I’ve said won’t help you predict the quality of a bar because there’s no way of doing that. Nutrition labels can help you make presumptions, but the proof is in the pudding.

HR | 11.23.2007